Nina Caprez: ‘I knew I had to leave’

Nina Caprez is one of the world’s best free climbers. She no longer cares about competition or rankings. But the 30-year-old Swiss is still climbing mountain routes that few women have mastered. To live her life and passion the way she wants, Nina left Switzerland eight years ago and lives in Grenoble, France. swissinfo.ch met her during one of her rare visits to her native village. The snow has arrived. “Isn’t that nice?” Caprez says as she opens the door. It’s the perfect mountain idyll. We’re in a big wooden house in Prada, a village in the Küblis district of Davos, eastern Switzerland. There’s no doorbell and visitors have to use the heavy doorknocker. This used to be Caprez’s home when she was still living in Switzerland. Today, she is just visiting her mother. It’s been eight years since Nina moved to Grenoble, France. The snow has indeed turned the valley and the mountains around Küblis into a fairytale winter landscape. But it has upset our plans; the roads ...